The Marauders' Fifth Year
by SSA James
Summary: Sequel to Summer at the Potters. Join the Marauders, Lily, Violet, and Severus at Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a sequel to my story, **_**Summer at the Potters**_**, and it will not make much sense without reading it first. This is set in the Marauder's fifth year at Hogwarts, obviously. **

**-Lily- **

I stuffed my trunk with all the things I had needed to get ready for the train ride to school. I was anxious to get back to Hogwarts; I hadn't seen James since I left the Potters. In fact, he didn't even say goodbye to me when Severus and I left by Floo the next morning. Even Sirius had come down to give me a hug and give Severus a quick flick to the ear. Sirius hadn't made fun of me, so James must have not told him about the kiss.

I had run away as soon as we had broken apart. James called after me, but I just ran up the stairs and jumped back into bed. I hadn't even told Violet.

"Are you ready, Lils?" I nearly dropped my new prefects badge when my dad came up behind me. "Skittish today, are we?"

"Sorry, Dad," I said with a forced laugh. "I'm just excited."

"Yeah, you've been talking about how you get to take those tests this year for quite some time. What were those called again?"

"The OWLs, Dad," I said, pulling on my knapsack. "They pretty much determine my future career."

"And what was that again?" He joked. I talked about how I wanted to be the Potions Master at Hogwarts all the time. Slughorn planned to retire soon, and I wanted to take over. Until then, I'd go to school, and maybe take a job in Hogsmeade.

"You're hilarious," I said sarcastically. Dad picked up my trunk easily, following me down to the car. I picked up my new kitten off my bed. My parents had surprised me with him the day before. He was small enough to fit in my hand. He had big blue eyes, with all black fur, except for his little white paws.

Severus was already waiting by the car, talking to my mum. Of course, she was fussing over how skinny he looked.

"Three more years, Sev," I said with a smirk.

"I could take a few more."

**-James- **

Mum and Dad didn't waste time waiting with Padfoot, Violet and I. The whole way to King's Cross on the Knight Bus, I listened to my parents gush at how wonderful it was that Padfoot was dating Violet, how they always felt like he was part of the family, and how Lily was such a nice girl and I should try harder for her.

I ignored them for the most part, instead, rehearsing how I should greet Lily. I was too embarrassed to even say goodbye to her the morning after we kissed. I hadn't even told Padfoot. I stayed in bed and pretended to sleep when the others went down to see her off.

Bipsy had asked what I'd done to make Lily run away, and I had no answer.

She had been the one to kiss me, which I never would have thought possible until that night.

"Oi, thick head," Violet said, waving her hand in front of my face. She was waiting in our compartment with Padfoot and I until Lily and Snape arrived, sitting on Padfoot's lap as always. I had gotten used to it, but that didn't mean I had to like it.

"What?" I asked, a little annoyed.

"I said, do you think Dumbledore's going to talk about the killings last night?" Violet said.

"Killings?" I asked, surprised. "What killings?"

"Did you listen to Dad at all, mate?" Padfoot asked. "That Lord Voldemort guy and his followers killed a bunch of muggles in Manchester. Seamus Murphy died as well. He was trying to stop the whole thing, all by himself."

"Deirdre's brother?" I asked. I knew Deirdre. She was a very outspoken Irish girl in the year above us. She was often called a "muggle lover" by the Slytherins, but she was fairly nice and always cheered the loudest at Quidditch matches. I hadn't talked to Seamus often, but he was much like his sister, short and short tempered.

"Yeah," Violet said. "She won't be coming to school until later. At least that's what Mum says."

"You guys talking about Lord Voldemort?" We looked up to see Frank Longtbottom. Frank was in the year above us, but often joined us in our conversations about Quidditch or politics. He was a tall kid with a chubby face and a lot of brown hair.

"Yeah, he's been in the papers a lot," Violet said.

"I reckon he'll cause more trouble soon," Frank said. "Can't wait to get out of school so I can fight against bastards like him."

"And we'll fight with you, Longbottom," Padfoot said with a smirk.

"I've got to go find Alice," Frank said. "Nice to see you two are together," He said to Violet and Padfoot. "Always figured you would. See you at dinner."

"I hope the ministry will deal with the Death Eaters before anything else happens," Violet said.

"Hi, guys!" Wormtail greeted as he entered the compartment, followed by Moony.

"What are you so excited about?" Padfoot asked.

"He just saw Molly," Moony said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, Molly's here?" Violet said. "I just love her, she's so sweet."

"She is," Wormtail said. Padfoot shoved him.

"You just fancy her," He said.

"She's a mother, for Merlin's sake, Wormtail," I chided.

"I don't fancy her," Wormtail said.

"Of course you don't," Moony said. "That's why I had to drag you away from the platform."

"I love her kids," Violet said, ignoring our taunts. "They've both got red hair and freckles. I just want to take one."

"You don't need kids, Violet," I said.

"You're right about that," Padfoot said. Both Violet and I glared at him.

"Violet!" I felt my stomach drop at the voice of my favourite ginger. "There you are, look what I have!" She presented a small ball of black fluff.

"Kitten!" Padfoot yelled, moving my sister from his lap and grabbing the cat from Lily. He looked ridiculous; Padfoot was probably the tallest person at Hogwarts, besides Hagrid, and was built like a house, yet there he was, cuddling a small kitten.

Lily and Violet laughed at him. "What's his name?" Padfoot asked. The creature rubbed his furry face on Padfoot's.

"Pluto," Lily said. "I think Sirius might have just stolen my cat."

"I love cats," Padfoot said, scratching behind Pluto's ears.

"We can tell," Snape said, coming up behind Lily. The cat gave Snape the same angry look as Padfoot, like he could sense his annoyance.

"Lupin, Lily," Snape said, "We're supposed to meet with the other prefects at the end of the train."

"Sirius, you can watch Pluto until I get back," Lily said with a laugh. I could have imagined it, but I thought I saw her take a quick glance at me.

**-Lily- **

"Sirius, I can't believe you snuck him in here," I said. Sirius had conveniently forgotten to put Pluto with the other pets when we made our way through the halls.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, Lily," Sirius said, even as he tucked the kitten further under his robe.

"Sirius-,"

"Ah, ah," Sirius said, pointing forward, "Dumbledore is about to speak."

I was going to argue with him more, but Dumbledore was, indeed, walking up to the podium at the front of the great hall. I hoped his speech wasn't too long. I was anxious to eat and get to my first duty as a prefect: showing the first years to the Gryffindor common room. I could already tell which ones that were Muggleborns, the ones looking up at the ceiling and around the room, some eyes landing on Hagrid.

"Hello, all, and welcome," Dumbledore spoke clearly and loudly. "And for some of you, welcome back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For those that do not know, I am Professor Albus Dumbledore."

"Had no idea," James yelled back. McGonagall glared at him from her seat at the teachers table. Dumbledore smiled. He always found the Marauders' shenanigans amusing.

"Ah, yes, glad to see you again, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said. "James Potter, everyone, our resident jokester."

James got out of his seat to take a bow. There was a round of applause from all of the tables, except for, of course, Slytherin.

"As much as I enjoy Mr. Potter's antics, I must warn first years not to follow his example, as it may get you in a spot of trouble with Professor McGonagall," Even McGonagall cracked a smile at that one. "On a much sadder note, I'm sure most of you have heard of Manchester Muggle Slaying last night. I regret to tell you that one of our students, a seventh year Ravenclaw by the name of Seamus Murphy was killed trying to protect his muggle friends. A moment of silence for our fellow humans."

The entire hall was complete still. Even the Slytherins, who probably didn't want to start the year off with a hundred missing points.

"Thank you all," Dumbledore said. "Now please, enjoy the feast."

"I'm surprised he didn't mention Lord Voldemort," I mused, grabbing a chicken leg from the plate before me.

"Dumbledore wouldn't want him to get the attention," Violet said. "Victims are more important than the killer."

"That's very profound," James said, mashed potatoes spilling out of his mouth.

"You are such an annoying git," Violet said, shoving a napkin towards him. James wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close and kissing her cheek.

"Love you, too, sis."

**-0-**

I remember my first night staying at Hogwarts, and I was terrified because I only knew Severus and we'd been separated after dinner. Violet, who I'd met on the train, talked to me the whole night. She helped me make something to remind me of home: a poster covered in pictures. Now, every summer before I left for school, I would make a new one, and the others would stay in my room at home. It was all moving, magic pictures this year, except for the picture of Severus, Violet and I after the last Quidditch match of the season last year. We all had big smiles on, as Gryffindor had just won, and somehow, James and Sirius had made it in, pulling faces.

"Surprised Vi didn't smack Potter with her broom," Emily Morgan, my tall, caramel-skinned dorm mate said, pointing at the picture. I always got on with Emily. She was a muggleborn as well.

"Oi," Alice Oland said, setting her knapsack down on her bed, "Don't you remember? She did." She set her own picture on her nightstand, one of her and Frank. She'd been dating him for nearly two years. Alice was tiny, with the most gorgeous blonde hair, down to her backside. She looked sweet, but she was loud and put up quite a fight.

"Course I did," Violet said, proudly.

"How could you ever be mad at that beautiful face," Melody Fellow said, dreamily looking at the picture Violet had of her brother and her in their Quidditch robes. Melody often hung around with Ravenclaws and talked about boys often. She was shorter than me, but not quite as small as Alice. Her hair was a mousy brown that matched her eyes. Needless to say, she was not my favourite.

"Easily," Violet said. She liked Melody even less.

"Now, now, ladies," Alice said. "Lils, I'm glad to see you're still standing after you're summer with the Marauders."

"Ah, just barely," I said.

"She even got a snog off my brother," Violet said with a smirk. I felt like my lungs just collapsed.

"Wha- How did you know about that?" I sputtered. Violet raised her eyebrow at me.

"Because I was there when Remus dared you?"

I had almost completely forgotten our game of Truth or Dare at the beginning of the summer.

"Oh…Oh, yeah, right."

**-James-**

"Oh, good, the twat brothers made it back," Simon Killen said as Padfoot, Moony, Wormtail, and I entered the dorm.

"I missed, too, Killen," I said, tossing my robe over Killen's head. He pulled it off, grinning. Killen was mostly serious, except when he was exposed to us Marauders. He was a studious and clever, with a complexion almost as dark as his humour.

"Good summer, I suppose," Killen said. "Not too far from your boyfriends."

Padfoot pulled me in by my waist. "Never," He said, kissing my forehead.

"I heard you and Potter's sister have paired off, now," Killen said. I rolled my eyes. Nothing stayed quiet at Hogwarts for too long. Padfoot had been getting this question all night. He gave me a side glance.

"Yeah," was his only answer.

"Lucky man," Killen said with a wink.

"Oi, brother, right here," I said.

"Sorry, mate," Killen said, suggesting he wasn't really all that sorry.

"Hush, now," Moony said, "You're both pretty."

"Piss off."


	2. Chapter 2

**-James-**

The worst part about school: class with the Slytherins. They always ruined Transfiguration for me, and Potions was bad enough without their ugly faces showing up. It was only the fifth day of class and I was already done with them.

"Prongs," Moony said, elbowing me. "Pay attention."

"What for? I'll just copy Vi's homework anyways."

"Because, I don't want another five points off," Moony said.

"McGonagall was only proving a point to the first years."

"Mr. Potter," Slughorn said, his hands clasped behind his back. "Am I boring you?"

"Not at all, sir," I said with a sarcastic grin.

"Oh, excellent," Slughorn said. "Since you have been listening, then you won't have any trouble with our first assignment."

The whole class groaned. Slughorn always paired off people from opposite houses. Sometimes I would get paired with Snape, who just did all the work for me, so that was nice, but I don't think I'd get that lucky.

"Groups of four!" Slughorn said, excitedly. At least that was something: maybe I would get paired off with Lily. I would get to look at her _and_ get my assignment done correctly.

"Killen, Morgan, Grendel, and Gibbon."

"Rowle, Knight, Black, and Evans," Padfoot threw his hands up in triumph.

"Oh, this will be fun," Slughorn said, looking at me. I silently groaned; what Slughorn considered 'fun' was never good for me. "Let's put the twins together."

"Oh no," Violet and I said together, even though she was on the other side of the room.

"The Potters and the Carrows."

"What did I do?" Violet asked.

Slughorn paired off everyone else and told us to have a Draught of Living Death brewed by the end of the class.

Alecto and Amycus Carrow looked practically the same, both doughy and short with beady eyes. The only difference, really, was that Alecto had long, stringy red hair that was nearly always in a braid down her back, while Amycus had close cut black hair.

Violet and I volunteered to grab the ingredients, to at least get away from the stench of the Carrows for a moment.

"Alright," I said, "I'll make myself vomit, and you can take me to the infirmary. Boom. No Carrows."

"With our luck, Slughorn would have Alecto take you."

"Damn, you're right," I said, grabbing my cauldron. Violet filled it with bottles of ingredients.

"I can't believe he put us with the fucking Carrows," Violet said. "Amycus is such a pervert."

"What?" I said. "He is?"

Violet rolled her eyes. "Calm down, James. Let's just get through this class and then we can go back to ignoring them in peace."

The Carrows had picked a table already, in the back corner of the room. "About time, Potters," Alecto said, setting out the ingredients. I silently wondered how she could grab anything with those sausage fingers of hers.

"Eat me, Carrow," Violet said.

Without even looking up from the Potions text I said, "Not a word, Amycus."

"Don't flatter yourself," Alecto said. "He wouldn't touch your filthy sister."

"Yes, out of us," Violet said, "I'm the filthy one. Just give me the damn wormwood."

**-Lily- **

"If I slip some of this potion into Knight's pumpkin juice," Sirius whispered to me as Rowle and Knight read over the recipe for the potion. "Will you claim that I would never do such a thing?"

"Only if you pour a little into Rowle's as well," I whispered back, not even looking up from my notes.

"Are we going to get this started, Muggle?" Rowle asked me with a smirk. He was a greasy, yellow toothed, dirty blond Slytherin. His eyes were an ice blue that always made my heart feel cold.

"It'll get us done sooner," I said, choosing to ignore the name calling. By the look on Sirius' face, he didn't want to ignore it. After four years with the Slytherins, I was used to it, but it seemed to bother my pureblood friends an awful lot.

"Just cut the damn beans, Rowle," Sirius said shortly.

"Miss Prefect, shouldn't you punish Black for his bad language?" Knight mocked in her shrill voice. She was an attractive girl, but her bad personality and false sense of superiority painted her pretty face an ugly shade.

"I didn't hear anything," I said, adding the root of asphodel to the cauldron. I could feel Sirius grinning at me. He probably thought I'd jump at the chance to get him in trouble. Before this summer, I might have, but since he started dating Violet, he become much more bearable.

I tried to hurry through the potion. I had done it before, for practice. I had worked every time before and I wanted to just finish and get away from Knight and Rowle.

"Whoa, Lily," Sirius said, staying my hand. "Slow down, if you don't let it stew, it'll turn the wrong colour and Slughorn will downgrade us."

"That's… true," I said, somewhat surprised. Sirius smirked proudly.

"I read the text."

Unfortunately, this meant we had to wait for fifteen minutes with the Slytherins with nothing to distract us.

"So, Muggleborn," Rowle started.

"You say that as if it's supposed to be insulting," Sirius said immediately.

"I guess a blood traitor like you wouldn't think it was," Rowle said, his thin lips curling into a smile.

"Oh, no," Knight said, "Even Black wouldn't go for scum like that. His girlfriend's a pureblood. He's all talk."

I could see Sirius grip his wand under the table. "Sirius," I said, shooting him a warning glance.

"See, Evans doesn't want you to get in trouble. Listen to the Mud-."

"Finish it," Sirius said, pointing his wand, still under the table. "I've got my wand aimed right at your shriveled prick, so go right ahead and insult this witch, who, by the way, is probably better at any kind of magic than you could ever hope to be. Finish your sentence and you can go on with your life like the dick-less weasel that you are."

"You wouldn't," Rowle growled. "Dumbledore would toss you out of here faster than you could blink."

"You don't think he'd like to hear what you've been calling Lily?" Sirius said. "How about I have a friendly chat with Slughorn? I'm sure he'd be interested in how you've been treating his star student."

**-0-**

The rest of the class went without incident. As we were leaving, after Slughorn had given us the highest grade in the class, I found Sirius while everyone else rushed to get lunch.

"You haven't had enough of me yet, Evans?" He said, shoving his potions textbook in his bag.

"Not quite," I said, handing him his quill. "I wanted to thank you, for telling off Rowle."

"It was no problem," Sirius said, looking down at me, pulling his bag over his shoulder. "I was my pleasure."

As we were the last two in the dungeons, we walked out together. "I could've handled it myself, but it was nice of you."

"Trust me, Lily," Sirius laughed, "I know you could. You're the last person whose wand I'd want to be staring down. It's just nice to have a friend fight for you sometimes."

"Yeah," I said, with a smile. "It is."

**-James- **

"Evans, you are so far off," Padfoot said, sitting across from Lily at the table for lunch. "The Beaters are probably the most important."

"I'm just saying," Lily said, taking a fry off of my plate. "It seems like you're expendable."

"See how long the Chasers last with a bludger on their ass," Padfoot said.

"Probably longer than if they get a bat to the head," I said, taking a swig of pumpkin juice.

"One time, Prongs," Padfoot said. "One time, during practice, second year, and you've never let me forget it."

"I was in the infirmary for three days!"

"Crybaby," Padfoot muttered.

"No fighting, you two," Violet warned. "Lily Bug, grab some food. We're supposed to meet Sev in the library to help him with his ancient runes."

"I'm not even in that class and I still have to deal with the homework," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"I thought you were going to help us with History of Magic, Vi," I said.

"Yeah, I didn't understand a word that Professor Binns said," Padfoot said as Violet stood up.

"It might help if you didn't sleep during his lesson," Violet said, kissing Padfoot's cheek. "I'll find you at dinner, yeah?"

"Yeah, see you, love."

I watched as Lily followed Violet out of the Great Hall. I thought about following her, getting her alone and finally talk to her about our kiss. All week, we had avoided being alone together. I knew it was because neither of us wanted to bring it up.

"Might want to quit staring at her, mate," Padfoot said. "She'll slap you."

"Shut up, Padfoot."

"What's been up with you lately, Prongs?" Padfoot asked. "You haven't tried anything on Lily since we've been back."

"Maybe I've grown up."

"Yeah, and Wormtail is shagging Narcissa," Padfoot said. "Seriously, what is going on?"

"I'll tell you," I said. "But you can't tell anyone. Not even Moony and Wormtail."

"Merlin, what is it?"

"Lily kissed me."

"That's not funny, Prongs," Padfoot said, staring me straight in the eye to see if I would laugh it off.

"It's not," I said. "But she did."

"No fucking way," Padfoot said. "Is that why you didn't come down to see her off?" I nodded. "I can't believe you didn't tell me, you twat."

"I don't think she's even told Violet," I said. "She would have said something to me otherwise."

"Course she wouldn't tell Violet," Padfoot said. "She'd probably push you two together more than she already does."

"Maybe I should tell Violet."

**-Lily-**

I lay in bed with Pluto stretched out on my chest, slightly obscuring the view of my book.

"How am I supposed to find out what happens to the children in the attic if you're in the way?" I asked him.

"Meow."

"That's always your excuse."

"Regular chatterbox, aren't you, Pluto?" Alice said, coming into the dorm and scratching underneath Pluto's chin.

"Got caught, I see," I said, putting my book down and moving Pluto to my lap and sitting up.

"We were let off with a warning," Alice said with a smirk. "Narcissa Black started her patrols early-,"

"Oh, fuck!" I said, jumping up and checking my clock. "I was supposed to meet Remus in the Great Hall ten minutes ago."

I quickly changed out of my pajamas and back into my school uniform. I knew that Remus wouldn't be mad at me; he was too nice. I'd still feel bad about making him wait.

I ran down the stairs. The halls were empty; everyone had gone back to their common rooms earlier.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," I said, running up to Remus. He smiled, showing that he wasn't upset.

"It's only our first night of patrols, Lily," Remus reassured. "I almost forgot, as well, so don't worry."

"Good to know that Dumbledore picked such good Gryffindor prefects," I said.

"Well," Remus said, "It seems we were the only logical choices."

"Yeah, but it would have been pretty hilarious to see what James and Vi would do as prefects."

"They'd probably take the first years out for a midnight swim," Remus smiled.

"Why do I feel that that's something that James made you do?"

"Because you know James pretty well."

"I do not," I defended, turning a little pink. I'd barely talked to James since we got back to school, and people were starting to take note of James' lack of proposals.

"I was joking, Lily," Remus said with a raised eyebrow. Of course, he didn't question me more, as he could tell that I didn't want to discuss James.

**-0-**

"I've been so bored," Violet said as we came back to the common room.

"You're just mad that I've been winning," Sirius said, across from her, on the other side of a wizarding chess board.

"You shut up," Violet said, tossing a jelly bean at his head. "How were patrols?"

"They were all right," I said. "Remus caught a couple of 4th years snogging in a broom cupboard."

"Hope you weren't too hard on them, Moony," James joked.

"He just apologized and shut the door," I laughed.

"Merlin, you are frightening," Sirius said.

"Didn't Violet tell you to shut up, Padfoot?" Remus said, plopping down next to Wormtail on the couch.

"You want to take over, Lils?" Violet asked, gesturing to the chess board. "Maybe you can knock Sirius off his high horse."

"Nah, I think I'm just going to head off to bed," I said.

"It's only midnight," Violet said.

"I realize," I laughed. "I'm going to try to get to the library early tomorrow, maybe actually finish McGonagall's paper sometime before it's due."

I was about to go up the stairs to the girls' dorms, but James grabbed my arm.

"Oh," I said, pausing with my hand on the railing. "Hi, James."

"Can I talk to you," He said, looking over his shoulder at the Marauders and Violet, who went back to what they were doing as soon as James' eyes landed on them.

"Uh, sure," I said, following James behind the stairs, where our friends couldn't see us.

"I think you know what this is about," James said.

"Yeah, I think I might," I said. "Listen, James, I don't know what I was thinking when I kissed you."

"Oh?"

"I mean, I like you a hell of a lot better than I did at the end of the last year, but I need you to know that I don't feel that way about you."

"Then why did you kiss me?" James said, a little miffed. "Was there a point to it at all?"

"I don't know," I said, matching his annoyance. "I just did it."

"Well, alright then," James said, stepping back. "That's settled then."

"I guess so," I said, walking back to the stairs. "So much for a conversation," I said, just loud enough for James to hear.

I walked up the stairs to my dorm, and got into bed. Emily and Alice were already asleep, Melody must have spent the night in one of her Ravenclaw friends' dorms.

As I got into bed, still a little annoyed that James put so much thought into that stupid kiss, I thought about why exactly I kissed him.

"Because you actually do like him," I said to myself.

Fuck.

I was right.


End file.
